How to change the color background of a matplotlib figure ?

Examples of how to change the color background of a matplotlib figure:

Using subplot and the option axisbg

from pylab import *

subplot(111, axisbg='#ababab')
t = arange(0.0, 2.0, 0.01)
s = sin(2*pi*t)
plot(t, s)
xlabel('x')
ylabel('y')
title('How to change background color in matplotlib ?')
savefig('exemple_01.png')
show()

source: How to set opacity of background colour of graph wit Matplotlib (stackoverflow)

Using patch.set_facecolor()

It is also possible to change the transparency using patch.set_alpha()

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from pylab import *

fig = plt.figure()

fig.patch.set_facecolor('#E0E0E0')
fig.patch.set_alpha(0.7)

ax = fig.add_subplot(111)

t = arange(0.0, 2.0, 0.01)
s = sin(2*pi*t)
plot(t, s)

ax.plot(t, s) #plot(range(10))

ax.patch.set_facecolor('#ababab')
ax.patch.set_alpha(0.5)

# If we don't specify the edgecolor and facecolor for the figure when
# saving with savefig, it will override the value we set earlier!
fig.savefig('exemple_02.png', facecolor=fig.get_facecolor(), edgecolor='none')

plt.show()

References